Teacher Trekker

It was 4:45 p.m., and I was alone in Dong Ha. For the first time in a few days I felt alone. I was traveling with people for the last week, and now I was by myself without a tourist in sight. This was not an overnight destination for backpackers and travelers, rather it felt more like the central hub for conducting day tours to the surrounding war sights. At lunch there were tourists in the area, but by 5:00 p.m., it was only me. I wasn’t complaining, but I just wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost, not find the agency, miss my bus and get stuck there overnight.

Found a small cafe and grabbed a very strong cup of coffee before the overnight bus to Hanoi!

Finding the Travel Agency

The directions were actually spot on. She failed to mention that there were no street signs, but I managed to pace the distance using a method I learned in the military doing land navigation. She gave me all the distances in the metric system. Many Americans could not tell you the metric conversion of anything let alone something as simple distance. It’s funny how much of those skills assisted me throughout my time traveling in foreign places with nothing more than a map and a phone that occasionally gets GPS for free when I am not connected to wifi. (It’s free too on my network!)

At the kilometer and a half marker, I think I crossed the “main boulevard” she was talking about and made a left towards what ended up being the only open travel agency on the block. Lucky me, they were waiting for me. I’m glad I was correct, because it was one of the hottest days during my time in Vietnam. My rucksack felt heavier than usual, and I was glad to take it off momentarily. I checked in, verifying that I was in the correct location. It was 5:30 p.m.,and I had around an hour to spare before the bus would arrive.

Wait! Where’s the bathroom? I’m confused!

Another Bathroom, Another Story

I asked to use the bathroom, if you can call it that. I was told to go around the corner, pry open the steel gates of the store behind the agency and go inside. It took all of my force to pry open the steel gates so I could squeeze through, and once inside I was confronted with a small group of elderly men sitting on a concrete floor quietly staring at each other in silence. I smiled as I made my way towards the open bathroom door. I didn’t require any, but there was no toilet paper or running water. Ah… Southeast Asia! I declined the fruit the old woman was cutting when she offered it to me as I came out of the bathroom. I probably had worse, but the thought of the bathroom was fresh in my mind. I asked which direction I should walk, or where I should go to find something to eat. The two women were clueless. They stored my bag for me, and I hit the town.

If you can’t find a banh mai cart you must not be in Vietnam!

You Can Always Find Banh Mi & Coffee

I decided to double back in the direction I came. I was familiar with the route, and I knew I saw a few open businesses in a town where most of the store fronts had locked their gates and appeared to already be closed for the evening. As I looked around, I observed that the town felt very greasy. Maybe it was just me or the few blocks I was on, but it felt as if of the few open shops that were open most were motorbike and mechanic shops. It looked like there were parts of dirty greasy engines as high as they could stack inside the shops and more parts pouring onto the sidewalks.

As I was walking, I spotted a banh mi cart and grabbed a quick bite to eat. Once I ordered the sandwich, I turned around to notice a restaurant that was full of locals eating that was hidden around the corner as I walked down the block. Oh well no big deal. I did want to eat more considering I knew that I had an 8 to 12 hour bus ride ahead of me. Lunch wasn’t the greatest and the portion size wasn’t large. I odered another banh mi and ate the first one on the side of the street while I was waiting for my second one to be prepared.

Vendor cooking the eggs for my sandwich!

While I waited I noticed a cafe that I went to next. I sat at the edge of the store front and ordered my daily cup of Vietnamese coffee. I hadn’t had one all day and needed to get in my daily dose and table shot photograph. I ended up taking out my notebook and began to write down notes from the day. As soon as my coffee was served to me, I noticed the old woman from the agency running down the block waving her arms in the air. I guess that’s for me. I thought to myself of all the directions she could have gone, she went directly towards the only 3 open businesses in sight. Funny she couldn’t help me when I asked her where to go a half an hour ago. No wait, it wasn’t an hour it was only 30 minutes. I can’t believe I was about to miss my bus because the transportation was early. That’s not an experience I was familiar with in Vietnam. I was used to showing up on time and sitting around to wait.

Don’t Miss the Bus

I crushed my iced coffee in a single gulp and rushed back to the agency with the old woman to catch the bus. Wait a minute! Where is the bus? Don’t tell me it left already! Not at all! The bus was yet to arrive. She just wanted to make sure I didn’t miss the bus. Ten minutes later the bus arrived. I showed the bus assistant my ticket, tossed my gear in the storage unit at the bottom of the bus and made my way to my seat (after taking off my shoes and putting them in a plastic bag (if you remember this from my sleeper bus to Mui Ne). As I got situated in my seat, the bus departed, and I was off to Hanoi.

We don’t really need electricity at a rest stop!

Sleeper Bus to Hanoi

Twenty minutes later we stopped at a rest stop. We stayed there for a half an hour. While we were there, the power went out rendering most of the businesses nonoperational. I’m glad I didn’t order food, or I would have been upset. A few minutes later the power came back on only to repeat the process again moments later. I was filled up from my two banh mi sandwiches, but I easily could have continued eating if they could have made me food. I just wanted to get on the road and had little business at the rest stop. The bus driver kept the bus on, which is actually uncommon as most conserve gas at all costs. I went inside to take advantage of the air conditioning, something I didn’t have the luxury of on the sleeper bus to Mui Ne. I was glad to be cooling down after a day in the sweltering heat.

At 7:30 p.m. the bus departed the rest stop, and we were finally on the road to Hanoi. I passed out shortly after we took off. The bus only made two pickups and two fifteen minute rest stops along the way. As the night progressed, it began to rain progressively heavier. That didn’t stop our driver from riding like a bat out of hell. I fell in and out of sleep all night. Between the confined space, the bumpy roads at what felt like mach speeds and the steady blasting of the horn by the driver, it was impossible to sleep for any real length of time. I made the best out of it listening to music, eating some snacks I picked up along the way and sleeping on and off when I could.

It’s called a sleeper bus for a reason!

Arriving in Hanoi

I woke up at 7:30 a.m. in Hanoi to a symphony of blaring dissonant horns in bumper to bumper traffic. It felt like it took ages to get to our drop off point, but I think it was just the anticipation of a new city and a burning desire to get off the bus at all costs. We were dropped off on what appeared to be a random block of motorbike shops reminiscent of the store fronts in Dong Ha twelve hours earlier. Locals instantly swarmed everyone as they got off the bus offering hotel rates and tours. I knew the location of where I was meeting friends, but needed to get wifi to orientate myself. None of the local businesses wanted to assist me for free, and the restaurant didn’t even want to serve me a coffee so I could gain access to their network. I walked into a tour agency and noticed the map on the wall. I asked where we were and used that to orientate my map with theirs. I figured out which direction I needed to be walking in and made my way towards the heart of the Old Quarter to attempt to find a hotel in the morning.

Conclusions

Staying in Dong Ha after the DMZ Tour and continuing on to Hanoi was a good idea. I had no problem finding the travel agency and food during my wait. Most importantly, this decision saved me unnecessary travel time. Had I taken the tour bus south back to Hue with the rest of the group, I would have had to pick up the sleeper bus there to go to Hanoi. That’s an almost two hour ride south only to turn around and take the same route north again. What’s worse is that the tour would have arrived back in Hue after the night bus departed for Hanoi, so I would have needed to spend an additional day in Hue before I could continue north using the night bus. (To me the idea of traveling long distances by day when you could go at night is just a waste of a day and an easy way to save money on a hotel for an evening. It’s the most practical thing to do. That is unless the only option is to take a day bus.) Finally, the bus ticket was also cheaper, because it was a shorter distance.

Overall, a long distance trip on any bus isn’t fun. Musicians in state of the art touring buses lose their mind on the road. Fortunately, it was only a twelve hour trip. I’m not the tallest person in the world, and even I find the space very limiting. I feel for anyone that’s six feet tall or more. My air conditioning vents were working so that was an improvement, and it’s all I really needed. There was a bathroom on the bus that resulted in minimal stops along the way to Hanoi. It’s cheap comparable to the cost of an average hotel room and gets you to where you need to be while you attempt to get some rest along the voyage. Do you really need anything else? Don’t answer that!